Week 24, 2026: Pondicherry

This weekend, I was in Pondicherry with my family.

One thing that surprised me immediately was the scale of the city. Looking at it from the air before landing, I imagined something much smaller. Immediately upon landing, I got Goa vibes. The drive from the airport was equally interesting. Everything was in Tamil (I’ve always found Tamil interesting as a language, both written and spoken.) It has a very distinctive look and sound. The people were also very friendly / helpful throughout the trip.

We stayed in the French Quarter, which made for a good base. On the first day, we walked to the beach. As someone with west coast heritage, I couldn’t help comparing it to the beaches in Goa. It felt very different. Less beach-town energy, more promenade. Oh, and less sand too. Afterwards, we went to a café called Bread & Chocolate. I had what looked and tasted like a real croissant for the first time (I ordered a Chocolate Croissant).

The second day was dedicated to Auroville. The walk to see Matrimandir was long, hot, and humid — but enjoyable. After a while, the walk felt more like meditation than walking. (I drafted a post regarding this before, with some funny / odd voice logs of myself - titled 1,000 steps.) Anyway, lunch was at Tanto’s, an Italian restaurant. Eating pizza (Italian cuisine) in the French Rivieria of the East was amusing to me.

Later, we visited Our Lady of Angels Church and the Old Lighthouse. What struck me was how close everything was. Most places we wanted to see were within walking distance. We ended the evening at Cafe des Arts. I ordered a Viennois (I didn’t know it’d be a double espresso shot; very brave of me) and a pain perdu with crème brûlée and orange. While ordering, I caught myself doing a French accent. A good / respectable French accent. Totally not pretentious and funny. Also, it was a lot of sugar, and I could totally feel the rush afterwards.

Today was much quieter. We had breakfast and later went to a fine dining place called Le Dupleix, where I tried a glass of Riesling for the first time. I liked it. Then we checked out and headed home.

I really enjoyed Pondicherry. It has a relaxed pace that I found myself settling into quite quickly. I definitely see myself returning.

A couple of things stuck with me: One was the frequent appearance of oranges in desserts and drinks (French cuisine, essentially). The other was the colour yellow. So many buildings were painted yellow. I was wondering if it was a Tamil cultural thing? I still don’t know why everything was yellow, but I support it.